Utah - High Uinta Mountains

Howdy Swillers,

Have any of you guys (or Dendro) been to the Uinta Mountains? I ask because a couple friends and myself are headed there this summer to hike to the top of the highest peak in Utah; Kings Peak, elevation 13,534ft. Let me also ask this question, are any of you backpackers? I'm getting back into it after a drunken hiatus that lasted too many years. If so, please feel free to share any stories you may have. If not, this thread should be at the bottom of Travis' pit before you know it!

Sent with Love,
Senior Dickfist

Paging OTPT

Never heard of it. But sounds fun. More hiking is on my bucket list. I bought an Osprey 34L small pack and took it for a test drive on some short hikes in Hawaii and really like it. You'd prob need a bigger pack for what your doing, but I recommend checking the brand out.

OTPT can prob give the best advice in this thread.

DWags wrote:

Senior Dickfist wrote:Howdy Swillers,

Have any of you guys (or Dendro) been to the Uinta Mountains? I ask because a couple friends and myself are headed there this summer to hike to the top of the highest peak in Utah; Kings Peak, elevation 13,534ft. Let me also ask this question, are any of you backpackers? I'm getting back into it after a drunken hiatus that lasted too many years. If so, please feel free to share any stories you may have. If not, this thread should be at the bottom of Travis' pit before you know it!

Sent with Love,
Senior Dickfist

Not having been there I’m guessing it’s going to be cool, beautiful and a great workout. Cant wait to see the pics. You guys gonna have sex when you get up there? I don’t need those pics.

There will be pics. Whether or not they're sex pics will be a surprise! Wait....all dudes....not likely to be any sex pics.

Nordic wrote:Never heard of it. But sounds fun. More hiking is on my bucket list. I bought an Osprey 34L small pack and took it for a test drive on some short hikes in Hawaii and really like it. You'd prob need a bigger pack for what your doing, but I recommend checking the brand out.

OTPT can prob give the best advice in this thread.

Osprey makes quality gear. They were on my list when looking for a new pack. Ultimately, I went with a Zpacks Arc Zip 57L. It weighs in at only 23oz. I've been carrying it loaded while snowshoeing the last couple days and it is great.

I remember now that OTPT backpacked. Hopefully he sees this.

I’ll come back to this tonight with more but off the top of my head... pack as light as possible, anything you can do to lessen the weight can make a big difference over the span of 30 miles or whatever you’re doing. Invest in a good pair of boots, they even make “hiking shoes” now which are lighter.

Food id suggest instant oatmeal, dried fruit, ramen noodles or if you want an upgrade mountain house meals are fucking good and light. Just throw in boiling water. Make sure to check that you have a good amount of gas or whatever before leaving. Peanut butter sandwiches. Bear canister is heavy but essential. If you’re trying to drink we brought whisky in a light container and then get a box of red wine and just pack the bag.

Water filter. Make sure everything works. My dumbass friend thought he had plenty of propane gas or whatever the fuck it’s called and didn’t have any first night. Had to use the fire not ideal. His water filter didn’t work either.

AllTrails offline maps are good. Phone can be on airplane mode and navigation on the trail will work.

Don’t pack a lot of clothes it’s a waste you’re going to smell anyway. Have fun. I’ll be back with more tonight.

Oh and check the weather. Especially for that Utah hike. You want to start hiking early as possible so you’re not summiting at noon-1. Storms normally roll in during that time in summer and lightning is nothing to fuck with.

One of the scariest moments of my life is running down a mountain when the sky was pink and it sounded like i was in a war zone as bombs dropped.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:I’ll come back to this tonight with more but off the top of my head... pack as light as possible, anything you can do to lessen  the weight can make a big difference over the span of 30 miles or whatever you’re doing. Invest in a good pair of boots, they even make “hiking shoes” now which are lighter.

Food id suggest instant oatmeal, dried fruit, ramen noodles or if you want an upgrade mountain house meals are fucking good and light. Just throw in boiling water. Make sure to check that you have a good amount of gas or whatever before leaving. Peanut butter sandwiches. Bear canister is heavy but essential. If you’re trying to drink we brought whisky in a light container and then get a box of red wine and just pack the bag.

Water filter. Make sure everything works. My dumbass friend thought he had plenty of propane gas or whatever the fuck it’s called and didn’t have any first night. Had to use the fire not ideal. His water filter didn’t work either.

AllTrails offline maps are good. Phone can be on airplane mode and navigation on the trail will work.

Don’t pack a lot of clothes it’s a waste you’re going to smell anyway. Have fun. I’ll be back with more tonight.

Hey there OTPT, glad to hear from ya!

Yes, as far as weight is concerned, I've made every effort to go as light as possible, without risking putting myself in a tough spot.  When I first started backpacking 20 years ago, I was only able to afford the least expensive gear, which was likely the heaviest.  I can only imagine what my pack weight was.  I can say the wife isn't exactly thrilled with the amount of $$$ I've spend the last few months as I replace all of my old gear..lol.  I actually have a spreadsheet detailing my base and consumable weight for both cold weather and warm weather.   With the High Unitas obviously being an alpine environment, it will fall under cold weather.  My base weight for cold weather is around 13lb, so with food and water, I should only be a little over 20lb total.

On the food topic, in the past I've mostly used the Mountain House type meals.  I'm looking to branch out from that, but it has to be easy since I don't like to mess around much with cooking in the woods (read: I'm lazy when it comes to cooking).   My stove is a Soto Amicus, which weight 2.9oz and has its own igniter.  My cookset is a Snowpeak 600ml titanium mug and spork.  Nice, simple and very light (3.5oz).

My filter is the sawyer squeeze.  3oz for just the filter.  It beats my old hand pump filter by a mile.

Your point on clothes is spot on.  If I'm not wearing it during the day, it must be because it's not raining and it's too warm for multiple layers.  Once it cools down at night, I'll put on my layers and should be good to go.  

Navigation - one of my buddies who is going on the trip has a nice paper map of the Uintas and I'll be using my phone, likely Alltrails, and I hope to have a GPS watch by then that will also display topo maps.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:Oh and check the weather. Especially for that Utah hike. You want to start hiking early as possible so you’re not summiting at noon-1. Storms normally roll in during that time in summer and lightning is nothing to fuck with.

One of the scariest moments of my life is running down a mountain when the sky was pink and it sounded like i was in a war zone as bombs dropped.

Very solid point. The plan for the 1st day of hiking is to hike to a camp spot that is very close to the peak. The plans also include a 2 day window to summit the peak in the case of bad weather. I've watched quite a few youtube videos and have seen footage from the peak when there were 3 or 4 storms hitting other parts of the range at the same time. Unfortunately, the only quick way down from the peak is taking a chute down the East face of the mountain. This is 2000+ vertical feet of scree. Not exactly safe, but doable in an emergency.